Oktoberfest- Sept 5, 2011

With a name like Dieckmann, you HAVE to know Tim has German roots!  His Father was actually born in Germany and immigrated with his family in 1955 at the age of seven.  His parents, whom we called Oma (grandma) and Opa (grandpa) we German to the core.   When the Oktoberfest celebration here in Utah started 39 years ago, they went.  And they continued to go together each and every year.  In the beginning, Opa refused to dance. After a few years, he was finally convinced to try it out, and never stopped.  After that, Oma and Opa won the dance competitions almost every year.  Their specialty was the orange dance...  dancing to a slow polka while holding an orange pressed between their foreheads.

This year we decided to go up for Labor Day, and it just so happened that is when everyone else wanted to go too.   We all ended up there together.  This photo shows about half of Oma and Opa's family.  Even though the entire family wasn't able to go together, I think they would be pretty proud of this group, and happy to know that tradition continues......

The back row are all children and grandchildren, 

the front row are the great grandchildren

Back Row- L to R-- Rich (Tim's brother), Joshua, Amy , Edgar (Tim's Dad), Uncle Paul, Tanta Nellie (Edgar's sister), Tim, Tammy (Tim's sister)

Front Row- L to R-- Kyra, Orion, Jonathan, Bethany, Miriam, Kay Ann, Alishaundra

This was SO cute!   Jonathan resting his head on Tim's,  What you CAN'T see is that he kept sucking on the peak of Tim's hat.  I wish I had been able to capture it...

Apparently he was having an oral day.... By the way-- the lederhosen Jonathan are wearing are the ones Oma and Opa bought for Tim when he was that age!. 

 Alix went wandering with Kay Ann, Kyra, and Kyra's grandparents Paul and Elenor...  But the rest of us had a great time dancing to the live band in the big tent.  Aunt Tammy danced with Miriam while Time danced with Jonathan and Bethany.  Yes, they were the ONLY ones dancing at this point, but they were having FUN!  You can tell, because I couldn't get a single picture of them facing me, or staying still enough to even get them all completely in focus... 

THE CHICKEN DANCE

This is by far the kids favorite!  We have a little stuffed animal at home that plays the music for this dance, and I finally had to hide it because it was driving me nuts!  We all did the dance together and had a great time!


This is kind of a side note, but I want to remember, so you get to read it :)

Sunday night after we got the kids to bed, Tim and I were trying to figure out what we were all going to wear.  Tim has two pairs of lederhosen that Oma and Opa bought him when he was a child.  I found a pair at a Kid to Kid second hand shop, German tags still intact, for $7.99-- SUPER bargain!  So, we have 4 kids, three outfits... What to do?

The problem got worse when Alix tried on the largest pair of lederhosen.  They we HUGE on her!  We realized we would have to use the lederhosen for Alix and Jonathan, but that left us with nothing for Miriam and Bethany.  I asked Tim what a German girl would wear, and he said it would be something similar to the dress I brought back from my mission in Portugal.  Lightbulb!  I pulled the dress out of my cedar chest, and it fit perfectly!  Monday morning I got up and after breakfast I started sewing.  I had red and black fabric just like the dress we already have, and my machine does have embroidery capability.  So...

The dress and apron Bethany (left) are wearing are the ones I brought home from Portugal, and the dress and apron Miriam are wearing are ones I made Monday morning.  Not a bad result if I say so myself :)  

I took the little girls to visit the clown that was doing balloon animals.  He saw their dresses and asked if I had made them.  I told him I had done the one, and he loved it!  He said he wants a new clown suit that will be brightly colored lederhosen made with patched together fabric, and asked if I would be interested in making it for him.  I gave him my number and he is going to call when Oktoberfest is over next month.  I had initially decided getting balloon animals wouldn't be worth it, but I paid two bucks and ended up with a job! :)